Sewage Problems Lead ResidentTo Seek Water And Sewer Lines

Published: December 8, 1999 12:00 AM

Out in the eastern-most portion of the city, where Geyers Chapel Road crosses the Conrail Railroad tracks, one resident has created a stir because there are no city water and sewage lines in place.

Sarah Pinnicks, who lives on the property adjacent to the railroad tracks, says that the combination of the lack of water and sewage lines and several failing septic systems on properties located above her have caused her back yard to become "a cesspool."

"We pay just as much (taxes) as anybody else," Pinnicks said. "We feel it's time we get something."

When Pinnicks says "we," she may be referring to simply the rest of her family. Some of her neighbors do not want water and sewer lines brought out.

"Absolutely not," said Dave Klein, a resident of the area. "It just costs the city too much. The way the land lays out here, geographically it's impossible and it's not necessary."

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Still, Pinnicks said she knows of five or six people in the area who would like to see water and sewer in the area, and city engineer Rick Oswald said Pinnicks is preparing a petition to turn into the city.

The main obstacle to running sewer and water out to Geyers Chapel Road is time and cost, Oswald said. It would cost at least $1 million to run water and sewer lines to the area.

"With a gravity sewer, you need to follow the lay of the land," he said. "To get gravity up to Geyers Chapel, you would need to start at Industrial Boulevard, bore under the expressway to get to Canal Road, and follow along Canal Road and come up from the south of Geyers Chapel.

"It would be a very expensive proposition to get it out there and we would need to do the design work and get permits from the EPA and rights-of-way from the railroad. It can be done. It just takes time and money."

If something like this is done, Oswald said property owners would have to help foot the bill through either assessments or tap-in fees. And that's the main reason the project has not been done in the last 38 years.

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"I think the reason water and sewer aren't out there is mainly because the people out there haven't really requested it," he said.

That area of the city was annexed in 1961, Oswald said. It was part of an 804-acre annexation that was done when Rubbermaid was built in that area.

For the time being, however, the Environmental Sub-Committee of the Wayne County Board of Health has attempted to fix the immediate problem of failing septic systems directly above the Pinnicks property.

If the three property owners install aerators, a line can be run up the road and into a ditch that will run alongside the railroad tracks. The railroad has even agreed to dig the ditch, county sanitarian Robert Himple said.

Pinnicks said she doesn't like the solution, and displayed visible anger at Tuesday's sub-committee meeting.

"Your alternative is to run it down around my house, through my son's yard," she yelled at the committee. "(Your solution) is just not going to work. I'm not going to quit. I'll get a lawyer."

Oswald said there are several areas of the city that have no water and sewer lines, and those areas contain between 70 and 80 homes. That number is about half of the number without services in 1998.